***
A fierce battle was going on outside the city of Le Havre. Van Ritter gathered a total of 3,500 cavalrymen and ignored the rebellion in the towns along the Seine, determined to recapture the city of Le Havre from the Qin army.
After 100 Marines escorted Zhang Haoran and his party back to Le Havre, Pang Ning had a total of 200 troops. After blocking Vanrit's army at the gates of the city for three days, Pang Ning wanted to launch a night attack with the help of rockets; however, Vanrit was very alert, and the night attack failed. Instead, Pang Ning was almost besieged outside the city by Vanrit's cavalry's mobility.
The French in the city began to rebel, and the situation was out of control. There were as many as six or seven thousand rebels. Van Ritter also sent people to attack the Qin warships in the harbor with small boats, and the warships were almost destroyed.
Faced with internal and external difficulties, Pang Ning ordered the destruction of all coastal artillery and retreated to three clipper ships. Van Ritter successfully occupied Le Havre.
Six other French warships arrived at the Normandy Bay and launched an attack on Ponning. During the naval battle, Ponning used the speed of the clipper to suddenly and desperately kill the enemy's warship formation, and then sank two enemy ships and damaged one with rockets, scaring the remaining French warships into fleeing.
At this time, outside the city of Paris, Yun Teng used the artillery fire from the clipper to cover and successfully transferred all the property and prisoners to the ship. Then he used the clipper to lead the way and rushed towards Le Havre at full speed along the Seine.
The Fronde rebellion once again helped the Qin army. Previously, almost all the towns along the Seine River were affected by the rebellion and basically fell into anarchy. The so-called Fronde were all rioters. After occupying a town, they looted and caused chaos.
Although Baron Conidi sent a message to the rebels in various towns to intercept Yun Teng and his men, the strength of the interception by these unorganized and undisciplined rioters can be imagined. Although some of them pulled artillery to the shore, they were basically scattered under the fierce bombardment of the clipper warships.
Yun Teng and his men were able to escort several ships of treasure and prisoners downstream to Le Havre. Because the shore artillery had been destroyed, Van Ritter was unable to stop the Qin army from entering the English Channel.
The rich harvest of Yunteng and his team made Pang Ning and his team ecstatic. They captured the French king, queen mother, prime minister, hundreds of nobles, and almost emptied the Louvre. Before coming, no one dared to imagine it.
After all the treasures and prisoners were urgently transferred to the clipper, they were basically safe. Because with the amazing speed of the clipper, if they wanted to escape, no ship in Europe could catch up. In a word, if you can beat them, fight them, if you can't, just run away.
Things have come to this point, and it is necessary to readjust the policy towards France. It is no longer possible to continue blindly seeking cooperation with Prince Yedai.
But how to deal with the follow-up matters. Yun Teng and the others didn't care. Don't forget that there are a large number of Daqin diplomats and think tank scholars on the ship.
After entering the English Channel, Yun Teng and his men just had to enjoy the fruits of victory without any worries;
In addition to diplomats and scholars, there were also a group of talents on board. The treasure appraisers were almost blinded by the treasures looted from the Louvre, and shouts of surprise were heard from time to time in the cabin. It felt like discovering King Solomon's treasure house.
In the combat command cabin, Zhang Haoran, Zheng Jie and other diplomats also pulled Pang Ning over for urgent discussions.
Wu Jing, a member of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said: "Now the king, queen mother, and prime minister of France are in our hands, and we must make good use of them. A strong France will be harmful to our Great Qin, and it will not be easy to implement checks and balances."
Zheng Jie said: "Looking at the whole of Europe, as Spain, Austria and other countries gradually declined, the Netherlands, the coachman of the sea, will also decline rapidly after losing to the Qin Dynasty and losing the trade in the East. Moreover, even if the Netherlands did not lose to the Qin Dynasty, its territory is too small, its people are few and its soldiers are few, and it is impossible for it to become the hegemon of Europe.
Although Britain and France are also plagued by internal troubles and in chaos, France has a relatively large territory, a large population, and unmatched potential. In addition, in recent years, it has won more than it has lost in foreign wars. It can command countries such as Sweden and has become the new hegemon of Europe. This is a rare opportunity to dismember France, and we must make good use of it. "
Under normal circumstances, it would be a foolish dream to dismember France with the limited power of the embassy.
But now that they have controlled Louis XIV, Queen Mother Anne, Prime Minister Mazarin and others, and under the leadership of Prince Louis de Bourbon of Condé, the Fronde has gradually gained strength. The conditions for dismembering France are in place. As long as they make good use of the chips in their hands and go with the flow, everything will be possible.
Zhang Haoran pondered and said, "After Paris became ownerless, the rise of Prince Condé seemed unstoppable. What is worrying now is that the forces controlled by Queen Mother Anne and Mazarin will quickly disintegrate because they are captured, and their value will be gone.
From what we know so far, Van Ritter, Willick and Froude control a total of more than 20,000 French troops, and these people are relatively loyal to Queen Mother Anne and Mazarin, or in other words, they are relatively loyal to the legitimate successor to the throne of France.
Therefore, we should use the hostages in our hands to integrate the forces controlled by Floyd, Willick, and Van Rivo to check the rise of Louis de Bourbon, Prince of Condé."
Zheng Jie said: "If we want to achieve this, we can't let Queen Mother Anne and Mazarin leave the center of power for too long. We need to send someone to Le Havre to talk to Van Riet first."
***
England and France are separated only by the English Channel, which is only 21 miles at its narrowest point. What happened in France soon spread to England.
At this time, Yang Yan, the envoy sent by Pang Ning to ask for help, had arrived in London for five days, but was left alone by Cromwell. It was not until the news came that Paris was conquered by the Qin army and Louis XIV and others were captured alive by the Qin army that London was in an uproar, and Cromwell hurriedly met with Yang Yan.
Yang Yan was only a Marine Corps commander and underestimated the possible consequences of the change in the situation. He still requested support from Willenwell as Pang Ning had instructed.
Because Daqin had not signed a military alliance agreement with Britain, Cromwell had every reason to refuse to send troops to support it. But now, not only did he not refuse, but he agreed immediately and sent thirty main battleships and five thousand army troops to support Daqin.
Even Yang Yan found this result unbelievable. Cromwell was so generous.
Willenweg suddenly decided to take such a big step in war, and there were very few voices of opposition in the British Parliament, and most members of parliament supported sending troops.
Perhaps, all island countries have a complex of yearning for the mainland, not to mention that there is only a 21-mile strait between England and France. The Hundred Years' War between England and France was caused by England's coveting of French territory.
In November 1337, King Edward III of England took advantage of France's weakness and launched a massive invasion. During this war that lasted for more than a hundred years, even the French capital Paris was occupied, and the occupied area became England's "second kingdom."
The British army fought all the way to Orleans. If it weren't for the "Maiden of Orleans", or "Joan of Arc" who was believed by the French to have saved France, France might really have ceased to exist.
This time, more than 200 Qin troops easily broke into the heart of France and captured alive Louis XIV, Prime Minister Mazarin and a large group of nobles.
The shock this incident caused to London was like a 12-level typhoon, which shocked London and also made London see the weakness of France. If you don't take advantage of the situation at this time, you will be sorry to the heavens, the earth, and yourself!
If by chance, it is even possible to turn the whole of France into England's second kingdom. If that happens, England's rise will be unstoppable and its position as the European hegemon will be unshakable.
In short, when things came to this point, let alone 30 main battleships and 5,000 land forces, if it were not for the royalist rebellion in the country and the unstable situation, Cromwell would even want to mobilize all his forces to launch a large-scale attack on France.
The one who led the army to support this time was Cromwell's trusted general Lanber. His actions were amazingly fast. The next day after agreeing to Yang Yan's plan, he quickly led his fleet to Le Havre.
Yang Yan was only a general commander and was very happy to see this. However, what he could not have imagined was that it was hard to say whether the people he had recruited this time were reinforcements or a group of wolves with ulterior motives!
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ps: Practicing One Finger Zen... ... ... ..(To be continued...)
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